I3 STUDY - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Clinical Research Coordinator at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine

Andre Ramos is a Clinical Research Coordinator at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Andre received a BS in Biological Sciences from The Pennsylvania State University in May of 2017. Before joining the team, Andre worked in the Sleep, Health, and Society laboratory at Penn State where he studied the effects of sleep deficiency on health.

Job Titles:

• Co - Principal Investigator
• Professor

Dr. E. John Wherry is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology in the Perelman School of Medicine and Director of the UPenn Institute for Immunology. Dr. Wherry received his Ph.D. at Thomas Jefferson University in 2000. Dr. Wherry was appointed Assistant Professor in 2005 in the Immunology Program at The Wistar Institute and then joined the Department of Microbiology in the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine in 2010. In October 2012, Dr. Wherry was appointed as Director of the Institute for Immunology (IFI), a Type-2 center at the University of Pennsylvania whose mission is to advance our knowledge of the basic immunology of inflammation, autoimmunity, cancer, transplantation and infection and to translate this new knowledge to novel strategies for diagnosis, prevention and therapeutic intervention. A major focus of the research in Dr. Wherry's laboratory is to understand the mechanisms and reversibility of T cell exhaustion and dysfunction during chronic infections and to dissect mechanisms of effective T cell immunity to vaccination and infection. The long-term goal of Dr. Wherry's laboratory is to develop approaches to reinvigorate the immune system in settings where it fails including chronic infections and cancer.

Job Titles:

• Principal Investigator
• Assistant Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine

Dr. Bewtra is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine; and a Senior Scholar in the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Bewtra sees patients with inflammatory bowel disease at the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine. Dr. Bewtra has also been conducting clinical research for nearly 10 years in inflammatory bowel disease with a focus on natural history of inflammatory bowel disease; outcomes of disease and medication safety using observational data and statistical modeling; measures of risk and risk tolerance for therapies using discrete choice experiment; and clinical trials for educational interventions and novel therapies. Dr. Bewtra's work has been funded by the NIH, CCFA, AGA, PCORI, pharmaceutical industries, and private philanthropy. She is currently a member of the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America, the American Gastroenterology Association and the American College of Gastroenterology.

Dr. Nicole Belle is a gastroenterologist, primary care doctor, and internal medicine doctor who practices at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.